NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 11 March 2015

Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency landed their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at approximately 10:07 p.m. EDT. Russian recovery teams are helping the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after their stay in space.

The trio arrived at the International Space Station on Nov. 23, 2014, and spent more than five months conducting research and technology demonstrations. Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova spent 167 days aboard the space station and clocked almost 71 million miles during their time in space.

Wilmore now has logged 178 days in space during two missions, the first of which was on space shuttle mission STS-129 in 2009. Samokutyaev now has spent 331 days in space on two flights, the first of which was on Expedition 27/28 in 2011. This was Serova's first flight into space.

The station now is occupied by Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA, Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA and Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency. They will remain aboard the station to continue research and maintenance until the remainder of the Expedition 43 crew arrives later this month.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka, are scheduled to launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, March 27 U.S. time (March 28 Kazakh time). Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year aboard the complex collecting valuable biomedical data that will inform future deep space, long-duration missions.

On-Orbit Status Report

40 Soyuz (40S) Undock and Landing: 40S undocked at 5:45pm CDT today bringing Wilmore, Serova and Samokutyaev back to Earth. Landing occurred at 9:07pm in Kazakhstan. The ISS will be in 3-crew operations until 42S docking on May 28.

Biolab Troubleshooting (TripleLux-B): Cristoforetti performed troubleshooting to recover smoke detection in the Biolab facility. She removed & replaced (R&R) two Exchangeable Standard Electrical Module (ESEM) boards in the Biolab to verify there is no damage to board connectors and Biolab interface after removal and prior to installation. Photos were downlinked for evaluation by ground teams and it was determined that the problem is the smoke detector. An R&R is scheduled for next Monday.

Node 2 Port IDA Control Panel Installation: Cristoforetti installed the International Docking Adapter (IDA) Control Panel, IDA Control Panel bracket, and cover on the NOD2P0-11 closeout panel. The Port IDA Control Panel will control IDA1 which will be installed at N2 Forward during SpX-7.

Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency landed their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft in Kazakhstan at approximately 10:07 p.m. EDT. Russian recovery teams are helping the crew exit the Soyuz vehicle and adjust to gravity after their stay in space.